James Ricalton - Photographer

Photographer

Ricalton was a prolific photographer, leaving over 100,000 images, among them a large collection of stereoscopic images. He quit his teaching job in 1891 to become a professional photographer and war correspondent. For the next 15 years he photographed and recorded events such the Spanish-American War (1898–1899) in the Philippines, during the Boxer Rebellion (1900) in China, and the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) in Manchuria. When Ricalton tried to take pictures of Japanese soldiers in trenches during the Port Arthur campaign, he was held in custody until Major Yamaoka of General Nogi's staff confirmed that the American photographer could take pictures of whatever he wanted.

He was amongst the photographers who recorded the 1903 Delhi Durbar which celebrated the installation of Edward VII as Emperor of India.

Ricalton's photographs earned him numerous honors and many were used to illustrate textbooks. He sold his images to the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Many of his photographs were used by the Underwood & Underwood to illustrate geography books.

In 1909, at age 65, he walked from Cape Town to Cairo, a distance of 1500 miles averaging 30 miles a day. An extant diary confirms his daily itinerary through South Africa, Rhodesia, and Kenya.

In 1912, Ricalton was sent on another assignment by Edison to test a motion picture camera in Africa, filming among other things a whaling expedition off Cape Town. His son Lomond accompanied him on this trip but died from typhoid fever there, and this was Ricalton's last trip.

Ricalton retired to his home town of Waddington, New York, where he died October 28, 1929, at the age of 85.